A Simple Heart, 2002-2009

Through its project A Simple Heart, inspired by and named after Flaubert’s famous novel, Un cœur simple, DOGMA takes a stand against the city of entertainment and artifice by placing the “workers” at the heart of urban organization. For this project, DOGMA sought to insert a wall around an existing part of the city, thereby aiming to contain all its capitalistic activities. Twenty-two of these units are set up close to the main urban centers of northwestern Europe. Each unit is designed to delimit an existing urban zone of 800 by 800 meters. These bars, measuring 25 meters in width and 20 floors high, contain 860 pods opening onto galleries for circulation. Once the compound is built, a transparent roof is placed over the area contained inside. The existing fabric of streets, squares and buildings, while remaining visible, is continuously adapted to the needs of the new inhabitants. As with Stop City, the form of the city makes it possible to limit its development. While the centre of the project is dedicated to production, a series of areas for solitude and contemplation is arranged along the periphery. The dynamics of contemporary capitalism are thus kept within the limits imposed by the form of the architecture. Simple, direct and sincere, the architecture of A Simple Heart is a reference to Superstudio’s Continuous Monument and to their anti-establishment and iconoclastic views. DOGMA’s many drawings, pastels and photomontages attest moreover to a sensitive approach marked by their exceptional mastery of graphics.